Poor performance of personal computers is a common user complaint. One of the most common performance issues is the length of time it takes for a computer to start-up. As more and larger applications are loaded at boot time, this problem becomes progressively worse. Unfortunately, the typical computer user is unable to improve computer boot sequence performance because s/he 1) does not know the approximate cost of the various processes in the boot sequence; 2) does not know that multiple processes started at boot time might be associated with the same application; and 3) does not know how to remove undesired applications and processes from the boot sequence.
Commercial tools are available to show the applications started during the boot process, and to allow the user to remove them. However, these tools do not indicate what gain that would result from removing which application, or the multiple processes that can be associated with individual different applications. Other tools, such as Microsoft's Bootvis®, provide monitoring of system resources during the boot process. Bootvis® is a performance tracing and visualization tool to help system designers and software developers identify performance issues for boot/resume timing while developing new products or supporting software. However, Bootvis® is not a tool that can improve boot performance for end users.
It would be desirable to enable end users to intelligently and easily improve their boot sequence performance.